


Summer Camp

by LouiseLouise



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Can totally fit within canon up to season 3A, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, First Kiss, Fluff, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Mention of past homophobia from Eddie's father, Second first kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22230292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouiseLouise/pseuds/LouiseLouise
Summary: Eddie and Buck don't remember this but they already met, 20 years ago when they were kids during summer camp. One day Maddie finds some old picture while spring cleaning and shows them during dinner, without realizing it's Eddie next to her brother. Now both Buck and Eddie remember  that lost piece of their past and have to deal with how it's gonna affect their friendship.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 25
Kudos: 533





	Summer Camp

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd, all mistakes are mine.

“Maddie, why do you have a picture of me at summer camp?” Eddie asks, picking up one of the photographs on the coffee table. She’s been decluttering her apartment lately and the small table is currently packed with random objects and a pile of old photographs.

Eddie’s having dinner with Buck, Maddie and Chim because, as his best friend says, “we can’t only live off video games and pizza, dude.” And he’s right, spending time with two other grown ups and talking about grown ups stuff feels good. Though it also feels kind of like a double date, which it’s not, but it confuses Eddie’s heart a bit. It’s so easy being there with Buck, so comfortable in a non boring way, in a way that makes Eddie long for a lifetime with Buck as his partner. Life partner, work partner, everything everyday partner.

But it’s not like that between them so Eddie shuts down his heart, for everyone’s sake.

“What? No those are Buck’s childhood pictures,” Maddie says coming out of the kitchen. “I don’t know why I was the one keeping them though.” She stands next to him, pointing at one of the kids in the photograph, with curly hair and a big smile. It’s a group photo and they’re all wearing matching shirts in different colors, with the words Camp Lakewood 2000 on them and a banner saying ‘Welcome to Camp Lakewood’ in the background. “Look, here he is, tiny Evan at the beginning of the best summer of his life because he--’

“Mads,” Buck cuts her, glaring, but she just smiles and goes on.

“Because he’s gonna have his first kiss,” she sing-songs. “Relax, baby bro I’m not telling with whom, that’s your story I get it.”

Buck seems to relax for a bit, until he sees the look on Eddie’s face. “Eddie?”

Chim joins them after putting the dessert on the dining table. “What, did our Buckaroo wore mom jeans or something?”

Eddie takes a deep breath before pointing at the kid next to Buck. “That’s me.” The kid with dark hair and a yellow shirt, smiling at the camera and standing next to-- Buck, apparently? That’s Eddie. Which means--

Buck looks up at Eddie, his brain slowly connecting the dots. “How?” he asks, and Eddie just shakes his head. The _how_ doesn’t really matter anyway, compared to the realization that the kid next to him on that picture, that kid who was his first kiss, happens to be Buck. That _they_ were each other’s first kiss.

Maddie grabs the picture from Eddie’s hand to take a closer look. “That’s you?” her voice is higher than usual and she can’t help the grin forming on her face. “You’re Buck’s-- oh. Oooh.”

Chim gives her a look, having missed a part of the conversation. She leans to whisper in his ear, “his first kiss,” she says, because now there’s no use keeping that secret anymore, that Buck’s first kiss was with a boy, since that boy is standing right here in her living room.

“Oooh,” Chim blurts out, eyes going back and forth between the photograph and the two men in front of him.

Neither Buck nor Eddie have said a word yet, they’re just staring at each other in silence waiting for the other to speak first. Waiting for this situation to make sense.

“We should probably leave them alone,” Chim suggests.

Maddie nods. “Uhuh. We should.” Neither of them move though. “Okay yes, let’s move,” she finally says pushing Chimney back towards the kitchen.

“How did I not recognize you?” Buck whispers. “Or remembered your name at least?”

Eddie takes a moment to think and clears his throat. “I don’t think anybody used my name there? Just--” he closes his eyes, thinking about how half the kids had a nickname during camp. He remembers his younger self passionately talking about baseball and how all the kids quickly named him after his hometown team.

“ _Diablo_ ,” Buck says, softly smiling. 

Eddie can see Buck trying to hold back tears, biting at his lip to keep his composure so he reaches out, putting a hand on the man’s cheek, brushing the first tears away with his thumb, his heart skipping a beat when Buck leans into the touch. He throws his arms around Buck’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug. 

“Hey, _Peanut_ ,” Eddie whispers into the crook of Buck’s neck.

-

Eddie never really forgot that summer. Most of the time though the memories felt like a dream, or something that happened to someone else. He remembers the sweet boy with curly blond hair and a fascination for bugs, a little younger than him but so smart and always smiling. 

“Bye Peanut,” the kid’s mother had said when dropping him off that first day of camp. She looked kind, with the same wide smile as the boy. The kids around laughed at the nickname but the boy didn’t seem to mind, and it made Eddie wanna be friend with him. The nickname sticked, and still the boy didn’t mind.

Eddie remembers the good days they shared and how he felt happy, before it got sad.

-

_Camp Lakewood, summer of 2000_

It’s been raining all morning and Eddie’s fine with just spending the afternoon doing whatever indoor activities the camp counselor have planned, but Peanut’s standing right in front of him, boots on his feet and his usual smile, asking his friend to go out in the woods with him.

“Come on Diablo, the ground’s going to be full of worms after the rain, they’re gonna be so easy to catch you’ll see”, Peanut says, and it doesn’t take more to convince Eddie to just go along with him.

He follows and he listens, so focused on memorizing as much worm facts as possible among all the information Peanut joyfully shares that he doesn’t see the roots coming out of the ground. He trips and falls in the mud face first, feeling stupid, his hands and knees hurting and probably scratched.

He does his best to hold back his tears though, like he was taught too. _Boys don’t cry_ he can hear his father say.

Peanut runs to his side, concern all over his face. “It’s okay to cry if you’re hurt you know,” he says, checking Eddie’s limbs for scraps and blood. “You got mud on your face so tears would only help clean it,” he smiles, and Eddie smiles with him, the pain and the embarrassment of the fall fading away.

Peanut takes a water bottle out of his backpack and starts cleaning Eddie’s face. It’s so gentle it makes Eddie’s heart flutter and without second guessing himself, he leans in and presses a kiss on Peanut’s lips.

_Boys don’t like boys_ , Eddie can hear his father say, but then why does it feel so right when Peanut giggles and lets go of the worms he’s just picked up so he can kiss Eddie back?

-

“I can’t believe it was you”, Buck whispers in Eddie’s neck. “I can’t believe I found you again.” He pulls away, hands staying on Eddie’s waist. “Do you have any idea how much I missed you when you disappeared without a word?”

The first days after that first kiss passed like every other day before, except maybe now they sat closer to each other at every opportunity, spent every minute of their days together and exchanged a few more kisses, each filled with that foolish hope that life would always be as perfect as that summer.

“My dad, he--,” Eddie wishes he could forget that part. The sad part. “I used to call my mom every Sunday, and that week... I liked you so much and I was so happy, I wanted her to know everything about you,” Eddie smiles, almost feeling those same feelings from 20 years before, the butterflies in his stomach and the hope. “She must’ve told my dad though, and that-- that was not something he could accept. He picked me up before breakfast the next day. I begged him to let me say goodbye to you but it only made things worse.”

Buck rests his forehead against Eddie’s. “I’m so sorry, Eddie. I wish things had been different.”

There are so many things Eddie wishes had happened differently, but those kisses? He wouldn’t trade them for the world. He wishes he could have more of them now, but he needs to remind himself that he and Buck are not those kids anymore.

“It doesn’t have to mean anything for us now, if you don’t want to,” Eddie says, because what else is he supposed to say? That his heart feels like everything makes sense now? That he believes the universe planned all this, for them to meet again, so far away from where they begun?

That he never wants to let go of Buck ever again?

Buck brushes his fingers on Eddie’s neck. “What if I want to?” he asks, smiling and what Eddie sees in front of him is that same hopeful kid who still talks about bugs and likes running out in the rain and--

For the second time in his life Eddie doesn’t second guess himself when he leans in to press his mouth on Buck’s lips, and just like before it makes him wanna smile and howl at the moon.

Buck kisses him back, softly, then more fiercely, tangling his fingers in Eddie’s hair and pulling him closer because he finally found him after all this time, and it feels like they’ve been practicing their whole life just for this moment.

-

In the kitchen, Chim sighs. “Yeah I don’t think we should wait for them to eat dessert,” he tells Maddie, handing her a spoon. 

And he’s right, neither Buck nor Eddie intend to stop kissing anytime soon. Because maybe the universe did in fact have a plan this whole time, and maybe Eddie doesn’t have to let go of Buck, ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!  
> Like always, kudos are precious, emojis are awesome and I look forward to reading your comments ♥


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